When you're selling a small item online and you need a plain, close-up photo, blogger Mason says you can avoid flash washout or screen reflections using a flatbed scanner instead of a digital camera:

Cell phones, MP3 players, discs, pretty much anything with a basic dimension can be scanned on your flatbed scanner.... To the right is a sample of a phone that was scanned. Not bad, eh? What the.....is that me in my tighty whiteys reflected in the screen!?!? Oh nope, wait, it was done using my flatbed scanner.

Seems like a good way to get a blank background in a photo with no setup. How do you get good photos of the stuff you're selling online? Let us know in the comments.